UAB marine biologist James B. McClintock has been celebrating the September publication of his well-received and gripping bookLost Antarctica: Adventures in a Disappearing Land, but his national and international notoriety continues to grow. We should all celebrate with him.

McClintock, Endowed University Professor of Polar and Marine Biology at UAB, has been selected to the board of advisors for the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. Wilson, of course, is the Alabama native who is University Research Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, the winner of the National Medal of Science and two Pulitzer Prizes.

A personal aside: E.O. Wilson won his second Pulitzer Prize in 1991 for his book The Ants (with Bert Holldobler). That's the same year Ron Casey, Harold Jackson and I won the Pulitzer Prize at The News for editorial writing.

The mission of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, according to its website, "is to promote
worldwide understanding of the importance of biodiversity and of the
preservation of our biological heritage. Among our projects is the
development of educational materials in life science for high school and
undergraduate students and the general public that will improve global
understanding of the nature and diversity of all of life on Earth and
why it must be conserved."

"This is a great honor for me,
not only because of the company I will keep on the board of advisors, but, as
you know, because of my lifelong admiration of Ed and all he has accomplished," McClintock said in an email this morning. Wilson, in fact, encouraged McClintock to write Lost Antarctica, which documents the effects of climate change over the 30 years McClintock has been leading expeditions to the ice continent.

When McClintock refers to the company he'll keep on the board of advisors, he's not kidding. Besides Wilson, there are five Nobel laureates and actor Harrison Ford on the 18-person panel. It's an active board, too, and McClintock expects to work on biodiversity projects right here in Alabama, one of the most biodiverse states in the country.

McClintock is already working with the foundation on an educational short based on a story in Lost Antarctica that will be featured at zoos and aquariums across the country.

McClintock has long shown a commitment to species conservation and is a great addition to the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.